1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector capable of doubly anchoring a terminal within a connector housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 7 shows a conventional connector disclosed in JP-A-2000-58180 which is a prior art related to the connector.
A connector 101 includes a connector housing 102 of synthetic resin, a front holder 120 of synthetic resin which is fit in a front end opening 103 of the connector housing 102, female terminals 125 each to be inserted in each of terminal chambers 105 of the connector housing 102, and a terminal anchoring spacer 140 of synthetic resin which is inserted orthogonally to the terminal chamber 105 from an opening in a lower wall 102b of the connector housing 102.
The connector 101 constitutes a male connector which is fit into the fitting space of a complementary female connector (not shown) and locked using a locking arm 107. The female connector includes a connector housing with a fitting hood and a female terminal to be mated with the male terminal.
The connector housing 102 has three terminal chambers formed in a height direction. Each of the terminal chambers 105 is defined by left and right partition walls (side walls at the left and right ends) and upper and lower partition walls 106 (upper and lower walls at the upper and lower ends). The upper and lower partition walls 106 are communicated with sloping partition walls 141 which slope upwards in a forward direction of the terminal anchoring spacer 140.
The upper and lower partition walls 106 are each provided with a flexible terminal anchoring lance 110 at the front through the sloping partition wall 141 of the terminal anchoring spacer 140. The terminal anchoring lance 110 is formed to slope upward, and has a vertical anchoring face 110a (first anchoring portion) at the tip which cooperates with the first anchoring stage 129 at the front of the female terminal 125. A space which permits the terminal anchoring lance 110 to deflect is formed beneath the terminal anchoring lance 110. Incidentally, the expressions xe2x80x9cupper and lowerxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cleft and rightxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cfront and rearxe2x80x9d are defined for convenience of explanation. Therefore, they do not necessarily accord with the directions when the connector is actually used. The expression xe2x80x9cupperxe2x80x9d refers to the side where a locking arm 107 for cooperating with a complementary female connector is provided; the expression xe2x80x9cfrontxe2x80x9d refers to the side where the connector is coupled with the complementary connector, and the expression xe2x80x9cleft and rightxe2x80x9d refers to the direction orthogonal to both the xe2x80x9cleft and rightxe2x80x9d and the xe2x80x9cfront and rearxe2x80x9d.
No upper and lower partition walls are formed in front of the terminal anchoring lance 110 to form an opening space passing vertically. At the front of the opening space, a square front opening 103 where the front holder 120 is mounted is formed. The front holder 120 is mounted in the front opening 103 using an anchoring means.
The front holder 120, which is a body separate from the connector housing 102, has four partition walls 121 which define the front side of the terminal chambers 105. The uppermost partition wall 121 is located in flush with the horizontal plane of the upper wall 102a of the connector housing 102. The lowermost partition wall 121 is located along the lower wall 102b of the connector housing 102. The intermediate two partition walls 121 are located in alignment with upper and lower walls 106 of the connector housing 102.
The partition walls 121 are provided perpendicularly to the wall 122 of the front holder 120, and an electric contact portion 126 of the female terminal 125 is accommodated between the upper and lower partition walls 121. In the wall 122 are formed a terminal insertion hole 123 corresponding to the electric contact of a complementary male terminal (not shown) and a jig insertion hole 124 for releasing the engagement between the terminal anchoring lance 110 and the female terminal 125.
In the configuration described above, since the connector housing 102 is provided with the front opening 103, the front opening 103 serves as a rapping hole or die-cutting hole. This facilitates the resin molding of the terminal anchoring lance 110 which is likely to generate insufficient filling because of its complicated shape, and improves the molding accuracy of the terminal anchoring lance 110.
The terminal anchoring spacer 140 includes upper and lower inclined partition walls 141 which define the terminal chambers 105 of the connector housing 102, another inclined partition wall 141 integral to the operation portion 142 at the lower end and side walls (not shown). The pitch between the partition walls 141 vertically arranged is equal to that between the upper and lower partition walls 106 of the terminal chamber 105. The terminal anchoring spacer 140 is inserted in a spacer inserting hole 112 which passes vertically through the terminal chambers 105.
The terminal anchoring spacer 140 is a body molded separately from the connector housing 102, but is used in a state where it has been inserted in the connector housing 102. The terminal anchoring spacer 140 is slidable vertically between a provisional anchoring position (state) and a final anchoring position (state). The provisional anchoring state refers to the state where the terminal anchoring spacer 140 has been pulled out downward so as to project from the lower wall 102b of the connector housing 102. In this provisional anchoring state, the female terminals 125 are inserted into the terminal chambers 105. Thereafter, the terminal anchoring spacer 140 is squeezed upward so that the female terminals 125 are completely anchored and preliminarily anchored. Thus, each of the female terminals 125 is anchored doubly by the terminal anchoring lance and the terminal anchoring spacer.
Some connectors do not employ the terminal anchoring spacer 140. In this case, the female terminals 125 are anchored by primary anchoring by the terminal anchoring lance 110.
The female terminal 125 includes an electric contact portion 126 at the front and a wire connecting portion 131 at the rear. The electric contact portion 126 is constructed of a box-shaped circumferential wall 127 and an elastic contact piece 128 located within the circumferential wall 127. The electric contact portion 126 has a first anchoring stage 129 cooperating with the terminal anchoring lance 110 formed at the front and a second anchoring stage 130 cooperating with the terminal anchoring spacer 140 formed at the rear. The wire connecting portion 131 is constructed of a front crimping piece 132 electrically connected by crimping the core 146 of the wire 145 and a rear crimping piece 133 fixed by crimping the cladding 147.
However, the above conventional connector provides the following problems to be solved.
One problem is that, since the connector 101 with the terminal anchoring spacer 140 inserted into the connector housing 102 requires a large number of components, the structure of the connector 101 becomes complicated and bulky.
Specifically, since there is a tendency for the number of electric components around the instrument panel of a motor vehicle to increase and for the space for arranging electric wires to decrease, it is desirable for the connectors to become compact. The above connector, which involves a large number of components, cannot satisfy such a requirement.
Another problem is that as the number of components increases, the production cost for the components increases. In addition, the operation of assembling the connector 101 requires a larger number of steps and the management of maintaining the accuracy of assembling the components becomes complicated. This is an obstacle of realizing the cost reduction.
However, if the terminal anchoring spacer 140 is abolished to miniaturize the connector 101, the female terminal 125 may easily come off from the rear. Specifically, the female terminal 125 is anchored only by the terminal anchoring lance. In this case, since the engagement margin between the first anchoring stage of the female terminal 125 and the terminal anchoring lance 110 is small and the terminal anchoring lance 110 has flexibility in both vertical and horizontal directions, if the wire 145 connected to the female terminal 125 is inadvertently pulled, the engagement may be lost.
Since the terminal anchoring lance 110 has a thin, lengthy and complicated shape, filling of resin may become insufficient in resin molding. In this case, it is further difficult to assure the engagement margin. This may reduce the force for holding the female terminal 125.
In view of the problems described above, an object of this invention is to provide a connector with no terminal anchoring spacer, and more particularly to a connector equipped with a terminal anchoring lance which can realize size and weight reduction and low cost based on the reduction in the number of components without reducing the holding force of a female terminal.
In order to attain the above object, there is provided a connector comprising:
a connector housing having a terminal chamber;
a terminal which is inserted into the terminal chamber from a rear opening of the connector housing; and
a flexible terminal anchoring lance which is projected from an inner wall of the connector housing to anchor the terminal so that the terminal does not come off from the rear of the terminal chamber,
wherein the terminal anchoring lance includes a first anchoring portion and a second anchoring portion arranged apart from each other in a direction of inserting the terminal, and the terminal includes a first engagement portion and a second engagement portion to be mated with the first anchoring portion and the second anchoring portion, respectively.
In the above configuration, since the terminal anchoring lance is provided with the first anchoring portion and the second anchoring portion to anchor the first engagement portion and the second engagement portion, respectively, the terminal is anchored at two points in a longitudinal direction. For this reason, the terminal once inserted into the terminal chamber of the connector housing does not come off from the rear. Since the terminal is doubly anchored without the terminal anchoring spacer which is a separate molded body, insufficiency of the holding force can be compensated for.
Preferably, the first anchoring portion is a tip of the terminal anchoring lance and the second anchoring portion is a projection formed at a side end of the terminal anchoring lance.
Preferably, the second anchoring portion is arranged at a base of the terminal anchoring lance.
In this configuration, since the second anchoring portion of the terminal anchoring lance is difficult to deflect in both vertical and lateral directions, the engagement margin between the second anchoring portion and the second engagement portion is assured to prevent the terminal from coming off from the rear.
Preferably, the second engagement portion is a projection formed at a rear end of a female electric contact of the terminal, and the first engagement portion is another projection formed at a front end of the electric contact.
Preferably, a pair of the second anchoring portions are formed at both side ends of the terminal anchoring lance.
In this configuration, if a pair of the second anchoring portions are formed at both side ends of the terminal anchoring lance, the pair of the second anchoring portions are engaged with the pair of the second engagement portions formed on both sides of the terminal so that even where the female terminal swings in the width direction, the loosening of engagement is prevented.
Preferably, the second anchoring portion is formed on the wall of the connector housing on an extending line of the terminal anchoring lance, the anchoring portion being flexible.
In this configuration, if the second anchoring portion is formed on the wall of the connector housing on an extending surface of the terminal anchoring lance, the engagement margin of the second anchoring portion can be assured without being affected by the swing of the terminal anchoring lance. Since the second anchoring lance is formed on the wall of fusible resin with good fluidity, poor molding such as insufficiency of filling is not generated in the second anchoring portion.